MarvinKnight
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Amazon Apocalypse: Chapter 13
🕑 Added 2022-11-02 15:01:01 +0000 UTC"Murder?" I asked.
It hadn't even been a full day, and we'd gone from a society of law and order to plotting the death of a fellow human. I would've liked to say it was wrong, but I'd killed those escaped prisoners a few hours ago in full view of the survivors we were rescuing. I didn't have room to talk.
"That's right. Cold, premeditated murder," Ben said. "It's best to put it out there here and now. That's what we're going to do. Craig's a problem, but now that we have guns of our own we've finally taken his advantage and matched it. Before he was able to push us around and pluck people from our ranks as he pleased. What if he starts demanding part of our supplies? Are we just going to let him and his gang leech off of us?"
Sakura frowned. "You said it yourself. You have guns now. Why would he even think he can push you around still? Yes, Craig's a pushy, arrogant asshole. But he isn't suicidal."
"He used to hold the advantage, and he pushed it as hard as he could," Ben replied. "Now we hold the advantage, but who's to say that will hold? What if Craig and his gang get lucky and stumble across an army supply depot? If he's driving down the street in a tank we'll be right back to square one. No, we need to nip this problem now when we have the chance to do so."
"Hold on," Michael Thompson the exterminator said. "I said I was prepared to kill whatever ugly monster reared its head at humanity. I didn't sign up to plot murder. I don't know who this Craig guy is, but I want no part in killing him." His cheeks flushed red and he scowled at the rest of the group, as though unable to believe he was sitting before a bunch of fellow humans. He put his hands on the table and pushed himself to his feet. Reaching down, he picked up his bottle of pesticide and looked like he was about to storm off in a huff.
Ben's lips drew thin, and he glanced at Margaret with a look that probably meant 'I told you so' or something along those lines.
"We're going to do that too, trust me," Margaret held her hands up. "Just wait awhile, please. If you don't want to talk about Craig, then don't forget we'll be doing the settlement quest too."
Michael grumbled something under his breath. "I'll be here for that. But for now, I'd rather wait outside. Come and get me when you're done with this little conspiracy of yours. I don't want to hear it."
He left the conference room, and Ben closed the door behind him.
"Sorry, hun," Margaret said as she gave Ben a hug. "I really thought he'd see reason."
"It's alright, dear. Michael there hasn't met Craig in person. Once he talks to the man, he might change his opinion on murder."
I chuckled. "Craig has that effect on people."
Ben turned his eyes to stare at everyone left in the room. "I take it that by remaining the rest of you are open to the idea of eliminating Craig before he becomes a liability?
Stacy nodded. "Of course."
Brett tapped his fingers against the table for a moment before nodding as well. "I've asked around. Like Michael I don't work here and don't know this Craig from a horse's ass. But if this many people hate his guts bad enough to want him dead I doubt he's the kind of guy I'd want to make friends with. I'm in."
Caleb nodded immediately. "One time about a year ago when I was getting a drink he thought I was Bridget and slapped my ass by mistake. I told him I'd kill him for that one day." Caleb drained his cup of steaming hot tea in one gulp. "I'm no liar."
Sakura sighed. "He is a danger to the rest of the office. And if he was out of the picture, my old employees would be free to seek safety with you guys. I imagine they're starting to realize their error in their choice of leadership by now."
All eyes turned to me. Ben spoke with a grim face. "Carter, you're probably the key to all of this. Nobody is closer to him in level than you, and you'd understand best if it's even possible to take him down. As people gain levels, we've seen them do some pretty inexplicable stuff, like that finger attack of yours."
I drummed my fingers against the table. I couldn't help but feel that we'd be crossing a line if we did this. If we killed Craig, we'd be setting a prescedent that we could just kill anyone who was inconvenient. Was this the end of Ben's promised democracy before it even began?
But Craig was a threat to us all, that was undeniable. The only question was if it really had to come to this.
I saw the look in everyone's eyes. They were doing this one way or another. I didn't like it, but I could see why they thought it had to be done. And if I wanted to make sure it was done right, I'd have to get my hands dirty as well.
I nodded slowly. "It is possible to kill someone at a high level. He might have a way to deflect firearms, but if you use enough bullets you should still be able to overwhelm his defenses."
I was talking mostly about my own Deflect ability, though I didn't plan to divulge the details of that spell. The main value it had was in stopping surprise attacks, and it couldn't do that if people knew how it worked. They'd just have two people shoot me at the same time.
No. I trusted Ben, but it seemed to me that special lifesaving spells like Deflect should be kept as secret as possible. And I was willing to bet that Craig had come to the same conclusion. If he had a secret ability that would save him from a surprise attack, he wouldn't have told anyone about it.
Ben sighed in relief. "Good. It'll would be a big help to all of us if you would join our little conspiracy, though. If he's got unknown unique abilities, we'd like someone with unique unknown abilities of their own on our side."
I met each of their gazes. "Alright, I'm in. But I want it done cleanly and quietly. I don't want anyone outside this room to know what we plotted here today. Let them think Craig died to monsters or something."
Ben nodded. "Then we're of one mind. We need plausible deniability, otherwise we won't be able to build a shelter based on a government of rule and law."
***
When Margaret and Ben explained their plan, I had to thank myself that they were on my side. I knew the couple hadn't built a law office as successful as the one they had from nothing by being pushovers, but to hear their plots myself was something else.
They weren't taking any chances with Craig. He probably had multiple ten stat point skills and maybe one twenty point skill, since he was the highest level of anyone. When we made our move, we had to be certain to take him down, since there was no telling if one of those abilities would let him slip away. I'd never shared the details of my vitality ability, but if Craig had something like my power to convert mana into health points, he'd be tough to kill.
"Rumors is he's close to reaching level ten," Ben said. "We need to take him out before then. Just like with skills, level ten is supposed to be a threshold."
"That's when you can get a class," I said. "We don't know what kind of bonuses that'll give him."
"Exactly," Ben nodded. "But we also can't just gun him down in the street. There are a lot of people who think like Michael, and the story will hurt us when we try to absorb Craig's splinter group. There will probably still be rumors going around when we start meeting other survivor groups. No, we need to make this look like an accident. Maybe we can even give Craig a glorious death and claim he sacrificed himself to complete the settlement quest. He'll certainly be more helpful to our cause that way than if we leave him alive to stir up trouble."
"You want to exhaust him in the fighting," I realized. "You'll invite him to join in on the quest, then when he's out of bullets and low on health points, we attack."
"He'll soften up the monster waves we'll have to deal with for the quest too. And forcing his men to fight alongside ours again will go a long way to quickly reintegrating his group. I heard he picked up more survivors on his last food run, and some of those guys look tough. A couple of them are even escapees from the local prison," Margaret explained.
I drummed my fingers against the table. "I still think it's a bit risky. You said he was close to level ten? What happens if he levels up during the quest?"
Ben frowned. "We'll just have to keep someone with the Examine skill on him. If he levels up, we'll spring our plan early. Besides, it takes time to allocate stat points and make System screen selections. It isn't like he'll stand there fiddling with his menu in the middle of a battle."
I wasn't entirely convinced, as I'd allocated stat points in a hurry before. But most of the others nodded along, and presumably the class selection screen would be even more complex. What were the chances Craig would know he had to make his choices in a hurry?
So with the plan in place, we invited Michael back in and talked about the quest we were about to complete to establish a settlement.
"Shouldn't we wait the full three days? We don't think the monsters have the Blessed of the System title, which means they aren't getting the free bonus stat points. That means us humans will be a lot stronger even if we don't level up in that time," Michael argued.
Everyone looked at one another. The real reason we were in such a hurry to complete the quest was because it was part of our plan to deal with Craig. But given Michael's earlier reaction, we couldn't exactly say that out loud.
Ben came up with an explanation that didn't mention Craig at all. "According to the quest description, the monsters we'll be facing will probably be the same creatures we've been fighting on the streets, just more of them. They probably have their own bonus that we're unaware of. I don't know how, but they're definitely getting stronger with every passing hour. We might be stronger in three days, but the monsters might be as well."
I nodded along. "And we want to leverage the power of those firearms. Some of those monsters at levels five and up took three shots to kill. I imagine that is only going to increase as average levels go up. We want to take full advantage of the power boost the guns are giving us, and we want to exploit them to their fullest as quickly as possible before it's too late to level with them."
Between the two of us, Michael yielded. He wasn't completely satisfied, but since everyone else was convinced yielded the topic.
After that, we went into preparing the specifics. Mostly, that meant assigning roles and combat leaders. It turned out Ben, Brett, and Michael were all military veterans, so they would take the lead in drilling our motley band of civilians into a group that could hold a line with guns and defensive positions.
"Carter, I'm afraid you're on your own. Officer training didn't cover how to use men who can shoot bolts of magic or women who are frighteningly dangerous with a baseball bat. If you don't mind, we'll give you the rear wall to guard. It's the only part of the office we couldn't convert into a star fort," Ben said.
The strange layout of the office was starting to make more sense. Ben had been preparing for this all morning, and most of the furniture and debris laid out was all meant to create kill corridors and cover for people with guns.
"We'll hold," I promised. "And we'll help out those to either side of us if they're getting overwhelmed."
We went through a lot of stuff about logistics and tactics. Ben was pretty certain the quest would last about six hours, which would probably take us just past sunset. That wasn't idea, since we still didn't know how well high perception improved night vision. But Margaret had a solution for that.
"The construction guys have an electric generator and a bunch of floodlights for night time work. The only problem is the generator doesn't work," Margaret said. "It's just like with the guns."
My eyes lit up. "You think taking them apart and putting them back together will fix whatever's wrong with them?"
Margaret shrugged. "It's worth a try. Otherwise we're going to have to fashion torches and lamps."
We went through an itinerary one by one. Ben and Margaret had clearly put just as much thought into completing this quest as they had into killing Craig, though I had a bit of advice to add in here and there, especially with regards to system-related topics.
"No, you want people to be able to step back at any time and have their position covered by an ally," I said when we were talking about combat shifts. "That way they can allocate stat points before jumping back into the fight."
"Hmm... that makes sense. We'll do it your way, Carter," Ben declared. "This means everyone needs to be in pairs of two. More likely three if we want to be safe. I'm not sure we have that many guns."
"The people on the front can share. If they're stepping away, they can hand off what they're wielding to someone else while they work on their stats."
The meeting lasted nearly an hour, and after it came more meetings with all the army veterans Ben would be relying on to command the various walls. We were losing daylight with every moment wasted though, so Ben expedited things. I was impressed by just how quickly he'd set up a chain of command in the shelter. One by one, Ben took his most trusted people and had them wrap a strip of orange cloth around their arms to signify that they were someone others should listen to. Sakura and Caleb both got one. Ben gave me a white one, which was the same color he and his wife wore.
"It doesn't mean anything right now," Ben said. "But maybe it will be once the shelter truly gets going."
"There's one last thing we have to do," I reminded him. "Craig."
Ben sighed. "Want to draw lots on who has to get him?"
***
In the end, the two of us sent Margaret to get Craig, though I heard her recruiting someone else to actually make the trip across the hall and get him. For a while, I was worried Craig would ignore our invitation. Ben and I were looking at one another ominously, since him simply ignoring us was something we hadn't prepared for.
But our fears proved unneeded a few minutes later when he appeared. Not just him either. He had two dozen rough-looking men at his back, all tough and strong. A pair of them were even wearing the same prison uniforms as the two we'd run into earlier.
I was usually against judging people based on cursory examinations of their appearance. Not everyone in the local prison was a murderer. In fact, the local newspaper said most of them were in there for minor non-violent drug related offenses. Sakura had hired some staff from the local prison once and besides one troublemaker they made fine employees.
But if I were a director hiring a pair of street thugs, these two would have been perfect for the job. From the scars on their cheeks to the missing teeth and the ruthless gleams in their eyes, I knew those two were the kind of people you wanted to stay away from.
And yet Craig kept the both of them right behind him and in front of his other recruits, as though the two of them held virtues he wanted the others to aspire to. The rest of Craig's people seemed to have done their best to imitate them. The sleeves had been ripped off their shirts, they discarded their work clothes in favor of jeans or camouflage pants, and they walked with a wide-legged aggressive gait. Craig wanted his people domineering, assertive, aggressive, and one wrong word from turning to violence.
I didn't agree with his methods, but I couldn't argue with his results.
Human - Level 7
Human - Level 8
The two wearing prison uniforms were the strongest of the bunch, with the rest somewhere between levels four and six. That was as strong as Sakura, Caleb, and Bridget were. Except instead of just three, Craig had a dozen people at that level, eleven men, and one who might have been a particularly masculine-looking woman, but that was up for debate.
I was suspicious. There weren't that many high-level monsters in the city. How had those two prisoners reached such a high level?
I was pretty sure I knew the answer. The other prisoners Sakura and I took out leveled by killing other humans. These two had probably gotten their levels the same way. After all, I doubted the warden and guards let the prisoners escape willingly. Nor did I think the prisoners all liked each other and joined hands to help everyone get free. There had probably been quite a blood bath that resulted in a number of high-leveled individuals.
But the followers paled before their leader, the man himself.
Craig (Human) - Level 9
"Hello, Craig," Ben held out his hand for a shake.
Craig accepted the gesture and gripped Ben's hand tight with a cocksure grin. I saw Ben wince, though he hid the look quickly and broke the handshake as soon as he could.
"Come over to our meeting room," Ben gestured to the very room we'd been plotting Craig's murder in less than an hour before. "Your men can wait outside."
"Nah. Anything you have to say to me you can say in front of my boys here," Craig gestured behind him. His followers chuckled, though the laughter had a dark undertone.
Ben straightened his jacket. He'd tossed his tie aside and undone the buttons on his shirt, but the kept the coat.
"Alright then. I have a unique quest I want to share with you," Ben began. A moment later he shared his System screen, and it became visible to all onlookers. Craig studied the screen, reading it over quite carefully. The description for the settlement establishment quest wasn't long, but he must have been reading it awfully carefully to take three whole minutes to go through it.
"So you want me to be part of this quest. What's in it for me?" Craig asked.
"Use of the Obelisk if we win. The same as everyone else," Ben offered.
Craig snorted. "Do I look like everyone else?" He looked to his companions behind us. "Are any of us the same as everyone else?"
They responded with hollers and heckles.
"Hell no!"
"Fuck that!"
"Old man, you better offer us more than that or we'll just take it!"
"You heard the boys." Craig turned back to Ben with a smug look on his face. "Ya' know, I'm thinking this office isn't big enough for two survival groups. You seem half-decent at managing the bullshit, so how about I put you in charge of the campsite while I take care of the fighting. To be honest, I was hoping Bridget would take the job, but since she's being a bitch I'll offer it to you."
Ben scowled. "I'll pass, thank you very much."
Craig snorted, looking Ben up and down. He was probably examining him, and from the expression on his face he was unimpressed with Ben's current level, which was just five. It was impressive for most, people, but it put him a clear step behind Craig and his elites.
Craig turned to his companions. "Well boys, which of you lads wants to be the camp housewife in his place. Hands up!"
None of Craig's followers raised their hands.
"Well that sucks. Guess we're going to--"
Ben raised his hand and interrupted Craig in the middle of his next sentence. "I wouldn't if I were you."
A dozen men and women armed with the firearms Sakura and I had just acquired popped out of hiding and leveled their guns at Craig.
"Shit." One of Craig's followers took a step away from his boss.
"Guns?" Craig rolled his eyes. "Don't try to bluff me. I know they don't work."
"A demonstration, then. Honey, my rifle." Ben held out his hand, and Margaret placed his rifle in it. He pointed the rifle at the ceiling and fired off a single round, loud and clear for all to see.
Craig chewed on his lip as he examined the hole in the ceiling. Dust wafted out of it and drifted to the floor below. He turned his eyes back to Ben and the rifle in his hands, and there was a combination of hunger and anger there. I watched his fingers twitch, and knew that Craig was on the verge of making a very poor decision.
Sensing the direction talks were going, I realized it was time to make my presence known.
The moment I stepped out of the crowd, Craig's eyes turned and snapped to me. I stepped up to Ben's side, and his tense shoulders slumped when I was standing there with him against Craig.
I felt the familiar tingle up my spine as Craig examined me, and I knew he was looking at my level.
"You've leveled up." The smile fell from Craig's face and was replaced by a scowl. He was still higher level than me, but he probably didn't have as big a lead as he expected.
"I did."
Craig's hand stopped moving, and his gun stayed where it was. My presence had changed his mental calculations. If he thought he could take us before, he changed his mind once he realized I was here and I was only one level below him.
For all Craig's faults, he had been quick to adapt to the arrival of the system, and he knew power when he saw it. He backed down, and the crisis was averted.
"Now, about Ben's offer," I began, gesturing to Benjamin's screen on display.
Craig fan his hand along his chin, nodding. "I see it. But my complaint from before still stands. I want more than access to this obelisk thing. I'm not getting a damn job when I can just kill things."
"See something else of interest, then?"
"Yeah. This government thing. It says High Sword gets to be in charge of the military and gets free shit? Sounds badass. I want that position. Make me High Sword and me and my people will help you."
"I can't." Ben shook his head. "I promised that position to Carter."
Craig's eyes darted to meet mine. "I see. Well, shouldn't the position go to whichever of us is the strongest."
I shook my head. "A position like this one should go to whoever the most competent at the job."
Craig grinned. "Yeah. And it sounds like the job is about kicking ass. What do you say you and me take this outside, just you and me. My boys will hang back, and you can't hide behind Sakura's skirt."
I grimaced. I was a lot more powerful than I was before, but Craig was still a level ahead of me. I knew how much every level was worth. Could I beat Craig? It wasn't impossible. I could sacrifice mana to heal myself every time I was shot, then hit him back with mana bolts. Assuming Craig didn't have any special abilities to save him in that scenario, it would work. But there were decent odds that he did have such abilities, and I wasn't about to roll those dice.
"How about an alternative battle. The two of us complete this quest and compare kills at the end of it. Whoever took out the most enemies for the quest wins the position," I suggested.
Craig scratched his chin and rolled his shoulders. "Sounds interesting. But--"
A message flashed up before our eyes.
Settlement Contribution Points unlocked!
Earn early Settlement Contribution Points by killing enemies in the Settlement Establishment Quest!
Points will be awarded according to enemies slain during the completion of the quest.
At user suggestion, the position 'High Sword' will be available for purchase at auction after the successful completion of the Settlement Establishment Quest!
"Huh. Looks like the System thinks my idea has merit."
One of the prisoners behind Craig whirled around, looking left and right. "Shit man, is the damn thing spying on us?"
A few others were having a similar reaction. I played it cool though, as though I'd known this was exactly what would happen.
"Fine. Deal. We'll hold our side of the office building," Craig huffed. Though I could see a hint of fear in the corners of his eyes. That System message suddenly appearing had frightened him, and he was starting to think I might know something he didn't.
In truth, I was just as surprised as he was, but I wasn't about to admit it.
Craig held out his hand for a handshake, but I sealed the deal with a fist bump instead. I'd seen what he tried to do to Ben's hand, and I knew Craig was petty enough to break a few bones just to prove he had more strength points than I did.
With a glare, he turned and parted, marching back the way he'd come.
The moment he was out of sight, Ben clapped me on the back. "Beautifully done. I wish I had you at the negotiating table for some our our more difficult clients."
I turned, and to Ben I gave a real handshake. "Let's get this quest started before we run out of daylight. Good luck."
***
The office itself would be our rear line, and that's where the noncombatants would hide. The actual battlefield would be around the office, and we'd hopefully hold the barricades Ben's survivors had constructed without needing to fall back to the office building itself.
The rear front which I would be commanding and defending was the most difficult to defend of the four sides. There were brick and mortar buildings on all sides before the integration, and after the System copied and pasted new buildings everywhere there were blind corridors left and right. That meant people with guns would have far less time to spot an enemy approaching and fire on them. For any other group that would be a problem.
But I had Sakura, Caleb, and Bridget. The three of them had all been putting points into physical stats, which meant unlike everyone else they didn't fear getting up close and personal with a monster and clubbing it to death with whatever improvised weapon they had on hand. It made us far better suited to guarding this front than any other group.
I'd expected it would just be us, but it turned out Benjamin was giving me a few extra people to help out.
"Hello, sir! I'm Marcus. Mr. Fisher said that we were supposed to help you however you needed." A young man saluted me. The clumsy way he did it told me he probably wasn't one of Ben's army veterans. But Examine showed that he'd proved his worth so far in the integration.
Marcus (Human) - Level 4
"Good to meet you, Marcus. And I'm pleased to accept help from you and your friends," Marcus had a half dozen friends, most on the younger side. There were five men and three women, and they all seemed to be in better shape than I usually expected of office workers, but that could have just been the effect of the free stat points the System had distributed. All in all, I'd be pleased to have them as backup, but I wasn't completely confident in their ability to hold their own like I was for Sakura, Caleb, and Bridget who stood beside me.
We were still introducing ourselves when a message flashed before all of our eyes.
Settlement Establishment Quest Initiated!
Would you like to join in the Establishment of Miyamoto Offices Shelter?
I selected yes, and several new features appeared before my vision.
Earn Contribution Points for your participation in the settlement establishment quest! These contribution points will be tradable for rewards at the Obelisk upon successful completion of the Settlement Establishment Quest.
Current Contribution Points: 0
Six hours remaining until quest completion.
I dismissed the quest and the counter began moving. I saw others peering away from their screens and into the shadows. In the dark alleys between the buildings we guarded, a thousand glowing eyes lit up and stared back at us.
<Note>
Whew, long chapter. Not sure I'll be able to swing a bonus chapter this week. I've analyzed output from a bunch of top novelist patreons and got roughly 12-16k words released a week on average (Shirtaloon, FirstDefier, Zogarth, etc.) So I'm pushing to just do the same output, only in fewer novel-sized chapters instead of more frequent webnovel sized chapters.
So basically, bonus chapters will definitely come when I've published less than 12k that week, but more only when writing is going good for me. Otherwise, it will be three per week as usual.
Things are a bit slow right now, mostly because 17-18 are very crucial chapters for the story. This early arc is going on about twice as long as I thought, but once we catch up we'll hit on some of the stuff we covered in the previous version of the story. Then we'll have the promised bonus chapters!
Carter Smith (Human, Level 8. Rank F)
Strength: 8
Agility: 6
Perception: 10
Vitality: 13
Intelligence: 23
Willpower: 8
Charisma: 8 (+4)
Luck: 0
Proficienciesroficienci:
Caster: 5
Neutral Mana: 2
Improvised Weapons: 2
Titles:
Forerunner of Earth, Integration Survivor, Chivalrous Pervert, Mechanical Master
Temporary Titles:
Blessed of the System, Hero of Sakura Miyamoto,
Comments
Kconraw
Looking forward to the competition. Thx for the chapter
DiabolicalGenius
Glad to hear it! And I'm always a sucker for an underdog.
Marvin
I definitely don’t plan on sacrificing quality! I’m hoping I can have more quantity at the same quality just by writing for longer hours. We’ll see. As for Marcus, I am sure he’d be happy to have you rooting for him!
DiabolicalGenius
Well, they decided to do it after all. I appreciate that you touched on the questions I raised and had Carter considering some doubts on the precedent it'll set. Still considering the direction Craig is going in, I agree that he really does have to die. Plus I noticed the implication that he was messing with his gun when the Integration happened, hinting that he was planning to use it. He seems like someone who might do something he'd regret later after the blood rushes to his head. The quest looks like it'll be interesting. They seem to have an unexpected number of veterans in town, but I'll chalk it up to them being more likely to have survived to join the group. I also hope Marcus and his friends aren't there just to be sacrificed to show how tough the fight is. I'd feel bad for them. I'll be happy for you to keep up your productivity, but I'll reiterate what I've said before. Don't compromise quality for quantity. You don't have to stress yourself out trying to make it perfect, feel free to relax and have fun writing it. But please don't turn into an author who's writing for length alone. That's all I ask.
